UX Research Portfolio

Leo Huang, Ph.D. Candidate

Table of Contents

About me

Research approach

Methods

Besample

Identifying the most

relevant

demographic filter for

our recruitment

interface

Besample

Generative work to

define our core

researchers and

needs

CIBC

Overhauling Private

Wealth pages to

attract more clients

Case 1 Case 2 Case 3

About me

I’m a UX researcher with a focus on uncovering core user needs through

in-depth interviews and empirically measuring usability. I live in Toronto,

ON.

I was trained at University of Toronto’s psychology PhD program. I had

extensive training on qualitative and quantitative methods.

At CIBC, I helped drive a user focus in an especially client-driven company.

My work resulted in 11+ studies and 3 line of business web portal

overhauls.

At Besample, I focus on comparatively assessing the UX of competitor

products and driving measurable improvement over time for researchers on

the platform.

My research approach

I use qualitative research to explore

and define the problem space.

I use quantitative research to

measure and validate the defined

problem.

I have combined these phases into

single studies and staggered them

across research roadmaps.

Explore Measure

A few driving philosophies

● Focus on user behaviors, avoid asking what users prefer.

● Show the insights in their truest form, not in the way the team hopes

they will be.

● Start with the research question and then choose the method for the

most impactful results.

● Quantitative research will show what and how much; qualitative

research will show why.

Qualitative Quantitative

Input

Interviews

Moderated usability

testing

Unmoderated usability testing

Card

-sorting

Benchmark usability

testing

Log analysis

Survey

First

-click

Card

-sorting

Eyetracking

Output

Thematic

analysis

Jobs

-to-be-done

Mental

Models

Affinity diagramming

Personas

Usability metric

comparison

Statistical analysis (linear regression, mixed

-effects

models in

R, Python, Matlab, Excel)

Heat

-mapping

Methods

Below are a few methods I use to collect and analyze data. I select the method based on problem we are

trying to solve and the phase of product development.

Case 1: Besample Recruitment Overhaul

Project & Objective

Besample’s main product connects researchers with

paid participants. Since researchers often have specific

demographics that they would like to study, the

recruitment interface needs to have a comprehensive list

of demographic parameter filters to help researchers find

their target participants while balancing complexity of the

interface.

The goal of this project was to assess the variables that

researchers care most about, e.g., age, gender, martial

status, occupation. I’ve also added the goal of qualifying

the complexity of the variables as some can be

ambiguous, e.g., ethnicity

Note: this project is more confidential so fewer details can be shared.

Case 1: Besample Recruitment

Process

To understand researchers’ main demogrpahics

of conern, I employed the Top Tasks method. It

involved two phases, the first being to explore

and define all the possible demographic

variables that we can conceivably store about

our participants.

I conducted a meta-study of published research

with human participants to look at the most

commonly reported variables and interviewed a

handful of internal subject-matter experts to find

the possible list of tasks. I then used a

qualitative reduction process to trim this list

down to a relatively “short” list of final possible

variables.

Case 1: Besample Recruitment

Process

The second phase was to identify which variables

were most critical to our users. The biggest

challenge here was operational: how can we find

hundreds of researchers in different fields to

answer a survey? I helped establish connections

with an large publication firm which allowed us to

contact researchers form diverse fields.

I used this customer list to distribute the

randomized survey I built in Qualtrics. I used R to

automate the data cleaning and analysis process.

Case 1: Besample Recruitment

Results

The results painted a clear picture of a few

critical variables that most researchers were

interested in. Furthermore, the other

variables that researchers cared about fits

into clear themes based on their fields of

research.

Based on our research, it seems like 6

variables were universally required by

participants. Beyond that, it seems like

providing customized filters based on the

field of research that the researcher is doing

is the best way to bring the most relevant

filter to the researchers.

Case 1: Besample Recruitment

Results continued & Reflection

Beyond our product and design team, I made the

findings digestible and available to the whole

company through an internal presentation and

report. Of the many teams that have begun to

use our findings, the finance team has

extensively used this information in their

marketing martial and for investor meetings.

If I were to do this project again, I’d have like to

create a few figma prototypes of varying

complexity of filter dashboard and test it with

researchers to identify the optimal number of

demographic variables to provide.

Case 2: Understanding Researchers

Project & Objective

The product team felt that they weren’t sure who our users were and

what they of research they wanted to conduct on the platform.

Product management would often be forced to make assumptions on

the backgrounds of our researches when making decisions.

I championed this generative research project to discover the

landscape of our core users in way that gave the team an evergreen

resource on what types of research our researchers would like to

conduct on our platform that can’t be done using our larger

competitors like Prolific or Qualtrics.

Example descriptions of the researchers personas

Case 2: Types of Researchers

Process

I used Indi Young’s mental model approach: I

interviewed researchers on the platform, coded

each user interview their atomic behaviors, and

then organized the behaviors into themes. This

gave a huge map of what types of research our

users want to do.

I also used the core interest and needs to create

personas, using Alan Cooper’s behavioral

variable method to qualitatively organize each

user into three distinct persona profiles. The

persona aspect of this project was added

midway through the process to help our

audience digest the findings more easily.

Persona variable mapping example

Case 2: Types of Researchers

Result

Our work resulted in our mental model map

with dozens of research priorities overlayed

by relevant personas and three detailed

persona descriptions.

These were constructed in such a way that

they describe current technology and tools

where relevant, but also can be applied as

core underlying behaviors when the next

paradigm shift occurs (this happens often in

software development).

We put these results to work by using them

in ideation workshops and helping to rapidly

onboard new product team members.

A single persona diagram of the three created

The final map featuring numerous concrete user tasks by

persona. Each card is a task, organized by related tasks and

noted for which personas do that task.

Case 3: CIBC Private Wealth Page Overhaul

Project & Objective

One of the major research project that I worked on

was for the private wealth division. They had a

problem.

Issue: last year they only signed on a single high net

worth individual through the private wealth page.

Although there might be confounding factors at play

such as the clients being older and prefer in person

experience or competition from US banks, given the

potential customer pool and CIBC’s position as one

of the big 5 banks in Canada, this number is still too

low.

Case 3: CIBC Private Wealth Overhaul

Competitive Analysis

Mixed-Methods Usability Testing with Competitive

Benchmarking

I designed a comprehensive mixed-methods usability test that

included a competitive analysis of leading private wealth banking

websites.

Competitive Analysis:

I evaluated CIBC against two Canadian competitors (RBC and TD)

and global leaders (JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs). This helped

identify areas where our website fell short.

Usability Testing:

Usability tests provided insights into user journeys and interactions

with key elements on each site. Users were tasked with finding

specific information, allowing us to measure navigability (e.g., time to

locate items) and capture feedback on pain points like navigation bars

and accordions.

Mixed Methods Approach:

Combining qualitative interviews with quantitative metrics offered a

holistic view. While numbers highlighted measurable differences

qualitative data illuminated how users felt about and struggled with

specific design elements.

Case 3: CIBC Private Wealth Overhaul

Process

We know based on

internal statistics that

one of the key issues

was the bounce rate. I

took a quantitative

approach and broke

down all the

components of this

page into metrics such

as number of input

fields, required

information sensitivity,

and tyle of input. and I

narrowed in on the

number of text boxes

being the most

influential factor after

running some pilot

surveys.

Case 3: CIBC Private Wealth Overhaul

Process

Demographic

Unmoderated

Usability test in

UserTesting – within

subject's design

30 participant

sample size

30+/ all

genders/ in

Canada

Minimum $250k in

investable assets

Minimum $100k salary

and experience

investing personal

wealth

Recommendations

• Better splash photo

• Warmer, more premium page

• Better messaging

• Reduce input fields

• Differentiate mandatory and

non mandatory fields

Case 3: CIBC Private Wealth Overhaul

Result

• Professional image

• Targeted message

• Reduce 13+ boxes to 9

• Reversed “Optional”

• Collapsed selections

OLD NEW